Here's another one that's just kicking off this week in San Francisco, but with a twist. Just like Groupon uses discounts to push you over the edge to try something new, Zipongo hopes to do the same, but for your health.

Zipongo goes beyond helping you buy stuff and encourages making better decisions by pairing a daily deal on natural foods with a lifestyle tracking app that helps you monitor your eating, exercise, and lifestyle.

All the foods are checked against the Institute of Medicine and Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Founder Dr. Jason Langheier says, "We developed a simple system of fun, color coded nutrition badges to help people quickly identity the important positive and ‘watch-out-for’ ingredients."

It's about more than food though. Langheier says, "I was inspired to start Zipongo by the first two kids I met while helping start a pediatric obesity clinic at Boston Medical Center. They got no physical activity, but liked swimming. Yet, their single mom didn’t even realize they could apply to swim for free for the summer at a YMCA three blocks from their apartment." So, he reasoned, an app that suggests where you can get the healthy lifestyle options you'd actually use could have a big impact.

Langheier wants his healthy deals to expose subscribers to new, natural foods and build better habits, while the Zipongo zLife app and website tools will help people find and stick to healthier lifestyles outside the grocery aisles. The app will suggest how to plan your next meal, for example, by tracking your behavior in a fun and game-like way and factoring in what other people are doing with similar stats.

zLife, currently in beta, provides tailored meal, exercise, and sleep plans, and if you're into the tracking gadgets out there like FitBit, zLife syncs up with that too.

Here's another one that's just kicking off this week in San Francisco, but with a twist. Just like Groupon uses discounts to push you over the edge to try something new, Zipongo hopes to do the same, but for your health.

Zipongo goes beyond helping you buy stuff and encourages making better decisions by pairing a daily deal on natural foods with a lifestyle tracking app that helps you monitor your eating, exercise, and lifestyle.

All the foods are checked against the Institute of Medicine and Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Founder Dr. Jason Langheier says, "We developed a simple system of fun, color coded nutrition badges to help people quickly identity the important positive and ‘watch-out-for’ ingredients."

It's about more than food though. Langheier says, "I was inspired to start Zipongo by the first two kids I met while helping start a pediatric obesity clinic at Boston Medical Center. They got no physical activity, but liked swimming. Yet, their single mom didn’t even realize they could apply to swim for free for the summer at a YMCA three blocks from their apartment." So, he reasoned, an app that suggests where you can get the healthy lifestyle options you'd actually use could have a big impact.

Langheier wants his healthy deals to expose subscribers to new, natural foods and build better habits, while the Zipongo zLife app and website tools will help people find and stick to healthier lifestyles outside the grocery aisles. The app will suggest how to plan your next meal, for example, by tracking your behavior in a fun and game-like way and factoring in what other people are doing with similar stats.

zLife, currently in beta, provides tailored meal, exercise, and sleep plans, and if you're into the tracking gadgets out there like FitBit, zLife syncs up with that too.

Green Box Top was founded by two yoga instructors who tried promoting their business on the other deal sites and using them as customers but ended up "frustrated that only about one in ten deals were interesting to us—we didn’t care about discounted Botox or teeth whitening," Green Box Top co-founder Lynn Ruolo writes. So they started their own deal site that only promotes merchants that "improve the environment, your wellness, the community, or all three." You can sense a good deal of the yoga wellness value system in the deals and promotions.

In place of Groupon's snarky commentary, each Green Box Top email includes an explanation of how that day's company qualifies as "green." It's nice to see that narrative touting better business right beside the 60 percent off banner.

A portion of each sale also goes to charity. This month's beneficiary is CUESA, the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture.

They launched in San Fransisco in August 2010 and are spreading to other cities. So far they've reached Denver, Eugene, and have a national daily email for online shoppers. But if you want Green Box Top in your city, the yoga instructors-cum-internet entrepreneurs want to hear from you. Get in touch with them to help bring the discounts to your city. And tell the other daily deal sites you wouldn't mind a little more conscious consumerism in their promotions either.

Green Box Top was founded by two yoga instructors who tried promoting their business on the other deal sites and using them as customers but ended up "frustrated that only about one in ten deals were interesting to us—we didn’t care about discounted Botox or teeth whitening," Green Box Top co-founder Lynn Ruolo writes. So they started their own deal site that only promotes merchants that "improve the environment, your wellness, the community, or all three." You can sense a good deal of the yoga wellness value system in the deals and promotions.

In place of Groupon's snarky commentary, each Green Box Top email includes an explanation of how that day's company qualifies as "green." It's nice to see that narrative touting better business right beside the 60 percent off banner.

A portion of each sale also goes to charity. This month's beneficiary is CUESA, the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture.

They launched in San Fransisco in August 2010 and are spreading to other cities. So far they've reached Denver, Eugene, and have a national daily email for online shoppers. But if you want Green Box Top in your city, the yoga instructors-cum-internet entrepreneurs want to hear from you. Get in touch with them to help bring the discounts to your city. And tell the other daily deal sites you wouldn't mind a little more conscious consumerism in their promotions either.

The daily-deal coupon company, Groupon, introduced itself to the world at-large yesterday with a disappointing set of Super Bowl ads directed by mockumenatarian Christopher Guest. The ads use big name actors to make light of serious problems in a faux-philanthropic PSA style ads that tout saving money for yourself as a noble cause.

Here's a sample from Elizabeth Hurley's ad (pictured above, video at bottom): "Not all deforestation is bad. (Sound of hair being waxed off a body) and since 100 of us bought at groupon.com we're all saving 50 percent on a Brazilian wax ...." Clever.

Poking fun at the stodgy, earnest and guilt-exploiting appeals of charity PSAs is fine, in fact, more of it might make charity appeals improve. But these ads don't actually pull off the joke. Timothy Hutton's Tibet ad was just poorly done, and many say it's in poor taste too.

Groupon points out they are actually doing good with their snide commercials in a blog post about them.

Since we grew out of a collective action and philanthropy site (ThePoint.com) and ended up selling coupons, we loved the idea of poking fun at ourselves by talking about discounts as a noble cause...

And if you’ve saved enough money for yourself and feel like saving something else, you can donate to mission-driven organizations that are doing great work for the causes featured in our PSA parodies. If you guys pony up, Groupon will contribute matching donations of up to $100,000 for three featured charities—Rainforest Action Network, buildOn, and the Tibet Fund—and Groupon credit of up to $100,000 for contributions made to Greenpeace.

Groupon could do much more to support the site that spawned it, ThePoint.com by replicating some of the practices of the tiny upstart Philanthroper that offers a good cause to support each day, and tries to cultivate giving as a habit among the growing internet consumer.

Here's another Groupon video. You decide if they're a good deal for philanthropy:

Update: Groupon has responded to the cascade of criticism against these ads with the sense of humor defense and a fair point about trivial commercialism.

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The daily-deal coupon company, Groupon, introduced itself to the world at-large yesterday with a disappointing set of Super Bowl ads directed by mockumenatarian Christopher Guest. The ads use big name actors to make light of serious problems in a faux-philanthropic PSA style ads that tout saving money for yourself as a noble cause.

Here's a sample from Elizabeth Hurley's ad (pictured above, video at bottom): "Not all deforestation is bad. (Sound of hair being waxed off a body) and since 100 of us bought at groupon.com we're all saving 50 percent on a Brazilian wax ...." Clever.

Poking fun at the stodgy, earnest and guilt-exploiting appeals of charity PSAs is fine, in fact, more of it might make charity appeals improve. But these ads don't actually pull off the joke. Timothy Hutton's Tibet ad was just poorly done, and many say it's in poor taste too.

Groupon points out they are actually doing good with their snide commercials in a blog post about them.

Since we grew out of a collective action and philanthropy site (ThePoint.com) and ended up selling coupons, we loved the idea of poking fun at ourselves by talking about discounts as a noble cause...

And if you’ve saved enough money for yourself and feel like saving something else, you can donate to mission-driven organizations that are doing great work for the causes featured in our PSA parodies. If you guys pony up, Groupon will contribute matching donations of up to $100,000 for three featured charities—Rainforest Action Network, buildOn, and the Tibet Fund—and Groupon credit of up to $100,000 for contributions made to Greenpeace.

Groupon could do much more to support the site that spawned it, ThePoint.com by replicating some of the practices of the tiny upstart Philanthroper that offers a good cause to support each day, and tries to cultivate giving as a habit among the growing internet consumer.

Here's another Groupon video. You decide if they're a good deal for philanthropy:

Update: Groupon has responded to the cascade of criticism against these ads with the sense of humor defense and a fair point about trivial commercialism.

The new "deal" site launched yesterday to "make doing good a habit." Each day Philanthroper will tell the story of a different small nonprofit in hopes that fickle internet surfers will click 'give' the way they click 'like,' or treat donating how they treat buying a mobile app.

"I wanted to modernize the world of donation to appeal to today’s internet culture," said founder Mark Wilson, a reporter for outlets like Gizmodo and Esquire. "Just 'liking' a charity on Facebook doesn’t exactly pay the bills," said Wilson in a statement.

One dollar doesn't exactly pay the bills either, but that's all you are allowed to give through Philanthroper. "You simply can’t appeal to the average Twitter user to donate $25 on a whim," said Wilson. And since he's trying to build a giving habit, not get you to give just once or twice a year, limiting the donation can have a greater impact in the long run.

There are a few plausible ways that could happen, like if the average user gives every other day, or learns the joys of generosity after a few weeks of impulse donating and becomes a life-long philanthropist for example. Habits are powerful forces, so Philanthroper has tried to lower the barriers to make giving routine.

“Philanthroper is all about simplicity. With one button you donate one dollar, and all but one cent goes directly to a great cause,” Wilson said. This micro-approach is only possible because Philantropher negotiated a deal with payment processor mPayy to charge just a one percent transaction fee. That's lower than the three or five percent fees on many other platforms Philanthroper talked with, and much less than the 25 percent or more many nonprofits often have to pay for money raised through third party fundraisers and credit card donations.

Philanthroper itself will be supported by ads, though currently there are no advertisers on the site, just banners inviting companies to "sponsor now."

Philanthroper is just starting, so it's tiny. Yesterday's deal on launch day pulled in about $200. But that's OK. The charities chosen are small too. And that's deliberate. The website declares: "These nonprofits tend to be young, growing and in need of every extra dollar they can get." Most will be under $1 million in annual revenues. That kind of charity is the hardest to identify and the hardest to vet. Watching how Philanthroper builds a network of quality causes will be interesting, and hopefully not too costly.

You can submit your nonprofit to be considered for Philanthroper at the bottom of their page here. And while you're at it, you can head over to Groupon and tell them to more prominently feature a few nonprofits themselves.

The new "deal" site launched yesterday to "make doing good a habit." Each day Philanthroper will tell the story of a different small nonprofit in hopes that fickle internet surfers will click 'give' the way they click 'like,' or treat donating how they treat buying a mobile app.

"I wanted to modernize the world of donation to appeal to today’s internet culture," said founder Mark Wilson, a reporter for outlets like Gizmodo and Esquire. "Just 'liking' a charity on Facebook doesn’t exactly pay the bills," said Wilson in a statement.

One dollar doesn't exactly pay the bills either, but that's all you are allowed to give through Philanthroper. "You simply can’t appeal to the average Twitter user to donate $25 on a whim," said Wilson. And since he's trying to build a giving habit, not get you to give just once or twice a year, limiting the donation can have a greater impact in the long run.

There are a few plausible ways that could happen, like if the average user gives every other day, or learns the joys of generosity after a few weeks of impulse donating and becomes a life-long philanthropist for example. Habits are powerful forces, so Philanthroper has tried to lower the barriers to make giving routine.

“Philanthroper is all about simplicity. With one button you donate one dollar, and all but one cent goes directly to a great cause,” Wilson said. This micro-approach is only possible because Philantropher negotiated a deal with payment processor mPayy to charge just a one percent transaction fee. That's lower than the three or five percent fees on many other platforms Philanthroper talked with, and much less than the 25 percent or more many nonprofits often have to pay for money raised through third party fundraisers and credit card donations.

Philanthroper itself will be supported by ads, though currently there are no advertisers on the site, just banners inviting companies to "sponsor now."

Philanthroper is just starting, so it's tiny. Yesterday's deal on launch day pulled in about $200. But that's OK. The charities chosen are small too. And that's deliberate. The website declares: "These nonprofits tend to be young, growing and in need of every extra dollar they can get." Most will be under $1 million in annual revenues. That kind of charity is the hardest to identify and the hardest to vet. Watching how Philanthroper builds a network of quality causes will be interesting, and hopefully not too costly.

You can submit your nonprofit to be considered for Philanthroper at the bottom of their page here. And while you're at it, you can head over to Groupon and tell them to more prominently feature a few nonprofits themselves.